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{{short description|Composition for chorus and orchestra by Johannes Brahms}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name                = {{lang|de|Schicksalslied}}
| type                = [[Choral composition]] by {{nowrap|[[Johannes Brahms]]}}
| image               = Johannes Brahms 1866.jpg
| image_upright       = 1.2
| caption             = The composer {{circa|1866}}
| translation         = ''Song of Destiny''
| occasion            = 
| opus                = 54
| text                = by [[Friedrich Hölderlin]] 
| language            = German
| composed            = {{start date|1868}}–1871
| performed           = {{start date|1871|10|18|df=y}}
| duration            = 15 minutes
| movements           = 3
| scoring             = {{hlist| mixed choir | orchestra }}
}}
The '''''Schicksalslied''''' (''Song of Destiny''), [[Opus number|Op.]]&nbsp;54, is an orchestrally accompanied choral setting of a poem written by [[Friedrich Hölderlin]] and is one of several major choral works written by [[Johannes Brahms]].

== History ==
Brahms began the work in the summer of 1868 at [[Wilhelmshaven]], but it was not completed until May 1871.<ref name=Evans>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Edwin|author-link=Edwin Evans (music critic)|title=Handbook to the Vocal Works of Brahms|location=London|publisher=W. M. Reeves|year=1912}}</ref> The delay was primarily due to Brahms's hesitation over how the piece should end. Hesitant to make a decision, he began work on the ''[[Alto Rhapsody]]'', Op.&nbsp;53, which was completed in 1869 and first performed in 1870.<ref>A. Craig Bell. ''Brahms: The Vocal Music''. London: Associated University Press, 1996.</ref>

''Schicksalslied'' is considered to be one of Brahms's best choral works along with [[A German Requiem (Brahms)|''Ein deutsches Requiem'']]. In fact, {{ill|Josef Sittard|de}} argues in his book on Brahms, "Had Brahms never written anything but this one work, it would alone have sufficed to rank him with the best masters."<ref name=Evans /> The premiere performance of ''Schicksalslied'' was given on 18 October 1871 in [[Karlsruhe]], under the direction of [[Hermann Levi]].<ref name=Evans /> One of the shortest of Brahms's major choral works, a typical performance lasts around 15 to 16 minutes.<ref>{{Discogs release|id=10081683|name=Schicksalslied, Op. 54}}, [[Bach-Collegium Stuttgart]], [[Gächinger Kantorei]]. [[Helmuth Rilling]]. [[Hänssler]] Classic CD98.122</ref>

The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the [[Library of Congress]].

==Instrumentation==
The piece is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings, and a [[SATB|four-part chorus]].<ref name=IMSLP>See [[#IMSLP|score]] at IMSLP</ref>

==Form==
{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Brahms - schicksalslied.ogg|title=''Schicksalslied''|description=Performed by the [[M.I.T.]] Concert Choir, conducted by William Cutter}}
The work is in three movements, marked as follows:<ref name=IMSLP />
{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman
| [[Adagio (music)|''Adagio'']]: ''Ihr wandelt droben im Licht''. (E{{music|flat}} major)
| [[Allegro (music)|''Allegro'']]: ''Doch uns ist gegeben''. (C minor)
| ''Adagio'': Orchestral postlude (C major)
}}

==Text==
<poem lang="de" style="float:left;">Ihr wandelt droben im Licht
Auf weichem Boden selige Genien!
Glänzende Götterlüfte
Rühren Euch leicht,
Wie die Finger der Künstlerin
Heilige Saiten.

Schicksallos, wie der Schlafende
Säugling, atmen die Himmlischen;
Keusch bewahrt,
In bescheidener Knospe
Blühet ewig
Ihnen der Geist,
Und die seligen Augen
Blicken in stiller
Ewiger Klarheit.

Doch uns ist gegeben
Auf keiner Stätte zu ruh'n;
Es schwinden, es fallen
Die leidenden Menschen
Blindlings von einer
Stunde zur andern,
Wie Wasser von Klippe
Zu Klippe geworfen
Jahrlang in's Ungewisse hinab.</poem>
<poem style="margin-left:2em; float:left;">Ye wander gladly in light
Through goodly mansions, dwellers in Spiritland!
Luminous heaven-breezes
Touching you soft,
Like as fingers when skillfully
Wakening harp-strings.

Fearlessly, like the slumbering
Infant, abide the Beatified;
Pure retained,
Like unopened blossoms,
Flowering ever,
Joyful their soul
And their heavenly vision
Gifted with placid
Never-ceasing clearness.

To us is allotted
No restful haven to find;
They falter, they perish,
Poor suffering mortals
Blindly as moment
Follows to moment,
Like water from mountain
to mountain impelled,
Destined to disappearance below.<ref name=Evans /></poem>{{clear|left}}

==History==
Brahms began work on the ''Schicksalslied'' in the summer of 1868 while visiting his good friend [[Albert Dietrich]] in Wilhelmshaven.<ref name=Niemann>[[Walter Niemann (composer)|Walter Niemann]]. ''Brahms''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929.</ref> It was in Dietrich's personal library that Brahms discovered "''Hyperions Schicksalslied''", from Hölderlin's novel ''[[Hyperion (Hölderlin novel)|Hyperion]]'', in a book of Hölderlin's poetry. Dietrich recalls in his writing that Brahms first received the inspiration for the piece while watching the sea:

<blockquote>In the summer Brahms again came [to Wilhelmshaven], to make a few excursions in the neighbourhood with us and the Reinthalers. One morning we went together to Wilhelmshaven, for Brahms was interested in seeing the magnificent naval port. On the way there, our friend, who was usually so lively, was quiet and grave. He described how early that morning (he was always an early riser), he had found Hölderlin's poems in the bookcase and had been deeply impressed by the ''Schicksalslied''. Later on, after spending a long time walking round and visiting all the points of interest, we were sitting resting by the sea, when we discovered Brahms a long way off sitting by himself on the shore writing. It was the first sketch for the ''Schicksalslied'', which appeared fairly soon afterwards. A lovely excursion which we had arranged to the Urwald was never carried out. He hurried back to Hamburg, in order to give himself up to his work.<ref name=Niemann /></blockquote>

Brahms completed an initial setting of Hölderlin's two verses in [[ternary form]] with the third movement being a complete restatement of the first.<ref name=Steinberg>[[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]]. ''Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.</ref> However, Brahms was dissatisfied with this full restatement of the first movement to close the piece, as he felt that it would nullify the grim reality depicted in the second movement.<ref name=Steinberg /> This conflict remained unresolved, and ''Schicksalslied'' unpublished, while Brahms turned his attention to the "Alto Rhapsody" from 1869–70. The piece was not realized in its final form until a solution was suggested to Brahms in 1871 by Hermann Levi (who conducted the premiere of ''Schicksalslied'' later that year).<ref name=Evans /> Levi proposed that in lieu of a full return of the first movement, a reintroduction of only the orchestral prelude should be used to conclude the piece. Convinced by Levi, Brahms composed the third movement as a copy of the orchestral prelude in the first movement with a richer instrumentation and transposed into C major.<ref name=IMSLP /> While Brahms was hesitant to break the desperation and ultimate futility of the second movement by bringing a blissful return to the first, some see Brahms's return to the orchestral prelude as "a desire on the part of the composer to relieve the gloom of the concluding idea of the text by shedding a ray of light over the whole, and leaving a more hopeful impression".<ref name=Evans />

==Musical elements==
''Schicksalslied'', which John Lawrence Erb posits is "perhaps the most widely loved of all of Brahms's compositions and the most perfect of his smaller choral works",<ref name=Evans /> is sometimes referred to as the "Little ''Requiem''",<ref name=Evans /> as it shares many stylistic and compositional similarities with Brahms's most ambitious choral composition. The [[Romantic music|Romantic]] characteristics of ''Schicksalslied'', however, give this piece a closer tie with the "Alto Rhapsody" than the ''Requiem''. Whichever piece it most closely relates to, it is clear that ''Schicksalsied'' was the work of a master composer working at the height of his skill. [[John Alexander Fuller Maitland]] stated that in ''Schicksalslied'', Brahms "set the pattern of the short choral-ballad, to which, in ''[[Nänie]]'', Op.&nbsp;82, and the ''[[Gesang der Parzen]]'', Op.&nbsp;89, Brahms subsequently returned".<ref name=Evans /> Likewise, Hadow praises the piece for "its technical beauties, its rounded symmetry of balance and charm of melody, and its marvelous cadences where chord melts into chord like colour into colour".<ref name=Evans />

The first movement, marked ''Adagio'', is in [[Time signature#Frequently used time signatures|common time]] and begins in E{{music|flat}} major.<ref name=IMSLP /> The piece opens with 28 measures of an orchestral prelude (which Brahms later re-orchestrates in the third movement). At measure 29, the altos enter with the initial statement of the choral melody, which is immediately reiterated by the sopranos while the rest of the chorus adds harmony.

[[File:Schicksalslied Alto 1.png|thumb|center|Alto theme]]

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 1.png|thumb|center|Choral theme]]

The first example of the text painting in ''Schicksalslied'' occurs in measure 41, with the "luminous" harmonies as the choir sings "''Glänzende Götterlüfte''".

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 2.png|thumb|center|Choral text painting]]

The orchestra returns to prominence at measure 52 with harplike accompaniment as the chorus presents a new melody to the line ''Wie die Finger der Künstlerin Heilige Saiten''. At measure 64, the orchestra cadences in the [[dominant (music)|dominant]] key (B{{music|flat}} major) before repeating the first thematic melody line originally stated by the alto voices.

[[File:Schicksalslied Orchestra Excerpt 1.png|thumb|center|Orchestral cadence in B{{music|flat}} major]]

This time, however, the melody is taken initially by the horn with the entire chorus repeating the theme on ''Schicksallos, wie der Schlafende Säugling''.

[[File:Schicksalslied Horn 1.png|thumb|center|Theme in horns]]

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 3.png|thumb|center|Choral theme 2]]

While Brahms does return to the initial thematic material in the dominant tonality, the restatement is a mere 12 bars while the initial statement was 23. This section ends with a similar orchestral [[cadence]] in measure 81, this time in tonic.

[[File:Schicksalslied Orchestra Excerpt 2.png|thumb|center|Orchestral cadence in tonic]]

The melodic theme returns one final time in this first movement at the choral line ''Und die seligen Augen'' (measure 84), which cadences in E{{music|flat}} major (measure 96). The orchestra plays two D [[diminished triad]]s to conclude the first movement and prepare C minor as the next tonality.

The second movement, in C minor and {{music|time|3|4}} [[Meter (music)|meter]], is marked ''Allegro'' and opens with eight measures of [[eighth note]] motion in the strings. The orchestral eighth notes continue for 20 measures as the chorus enters in unison with ''Doch uns ist gegeben''. The eighth notes intensify and climax at a [[dynamics (music)|{{serif|''ff''}}]] in measure 132 as Brahms sets the lyric ''blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern'' to the chorus dividing into a B [[diminished seventh chord]].

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 4.png|thumb|center|Text painting 2]]

[[File:Schicksalslied Orchestra Excerpt 4.png|thumb|center|Orchestral quaver]]

In an effort to elicit an effect of gasping for breath, Brahms inserts a [[hemiola]] over the lyric ''Wasser von Klippe zu Klippe geworfen''. By alternating quarter notes with quarter rests, this section feels as though the meter has changed, essentially converting two bars of {{music|time|3|4}} into one of {{music|time|3|2}}.

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 5.png|thumb|center|Choral hemiola]]

[[File:Finale 1.png|thumb|center|Hemiola 1]]

[[File:Finale 2.png|thumb|center|Hemiola 2]]

The ordinary rhythm returns in measure 154 with the choir completing the stanza and ultimately cadencing on a D major triad in measure 172.

After a 21-measure orchestral interlude, Brahms restates the last stanza of text with two separate [[Fugue|fugal]] sections in measures 194–222 and 222–273. Following the fugal sections, Brahms repeats the entire second movement (excluding the fugues) in D minor. The chorus replaces their final D major triad of the first statement with a D{{music|sharp}} diminished chord in measure 322.

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 6.png|thumb|center|Choral cadence, measure 172]]

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 7.png|thumb|center|Choral cadence, measure 322]]

The cadential material then repeats, landing on the tonic C minor in measure 332.

[[File:Schicksalslied Choral Excerpt 8.png|thumb|center|Choral C minor cadence]]

The second movement closes by way of a 54-measure orchestral section with a C pedal tone and the chorus intermittently repeating the last line of Hölderlin's poem. The addition of E{{music|natural}}s starting in measure 364 predicts the coming [[modulation (music)|modulation]] to C major for the final movement.

The third movement, marked ''Adagio'', is in C major and returns to common time. This postlude is the same as the orchestral prelude, save for some changes in instrumentation and [[transposition (music)|transposition]] into C major.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* [[Guido Adler|Adler, Guido]], and [[Oliver Strunk|W. Oliver Strunk]]. "Johannes Brahms: His Achievement, His Personality, and His Position". ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'', vol. 19, no. 2 (April 1933). {{JSTOR|738793}}.
* Bozarth, George S. "The First Generation of Brahms Manuscript Collections". ''[[Notes (journal)|Notes]]'', second series, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 239–262 (December 1983). {{JSTOR|941298}}
* Bozarth, George S. "Johannes Brahms and George Henschel: An Enduring Friendship". ''[[Music & Letters]]'', vol. 92, no. 1 (February 2011). {{JSTOR|23013058}}.
* [[John Daverio|Daverio, John]]. "The ''Wechsel der Töne'' in Brahms's ''Schicksalslied''". ''[[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]'', vol. 46, no. 1 (Spring 1993). {{JSTOR|831806}}.
* Harding, H. A., "Some Thoughts upon the Position of Johannes Brahms among the Great Masters of Music". ''[[Proceedings of the Musical Association]]'', vol. 33, no. 1 (1906). {{JSTOR|765640}}.
* [[Timothy L. Jackson|Jackson, Timothy L.]] "The Tragic Reversed Recapitulation in the German Classical Tradition". ''[[Journal of Music Theory]]'', vol. 40, no. 1 (Spring 1996). {{JSTOR|843923}}.

==External links==
* ''Schicksalslied'', Op. 54. [https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.200217561.0/?sp=3 Brahms' autograph in the Library of Congress]
* {{Anchor|IMSLP}}{{IMSLP|work=Schicksalslied, Op.54 (Brahms, Johannes)|cname=''Schicksalslied'' (Brahms)}}

{{Johannes Brahms}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1871 compositions]]
[[Category:Choral compositions by Johannes Brahms]]
[[Category:Musical settings of poems by Friedrich Hölderlin]]